The following announcement was released by City Manager Laura Snideman this morning:

Dear Council Members (current and incoming) and MLT:

Please join me in congratulating Adrian Sheppard as the new Fire Chief in Redmond, Washington.  I am grateful for his service in Richmond and impressed with his dozens and dozens of contributions. Just a few examples of his accomplishments (of a multi-paged list that isn’t even current!) include improving patient outcomes through securing LUCAS chest compression devices for every frontline apparatus and implementing electronic patient care reporting and quality assurance, overseeing the replacement of multiple apparatus, redesigning our recruitment practices with the goal of increasing diversity, and greatly improving our disaster preparedness, starting with recruiting a highly experience emergency manager and expanding CERT training, establishing a disaster council and creating disaster MOUs.

Included in the list of those who will miss his dedicated efforts, and who may not even know they will miss him, are the hundreds of children who enjoy the outcome of the annual toy drive to which he was passionately devoted.

Adrian will start his new job in February and I will select an Interim Chief prior to his departure while initiating an open recruitment process.

In May of 2020, IAFF Local 188 reported a vote of “no Confidence” in Chief Sheppard. In October 2020, Sheppard was passed over as a candidate for fire chief in Boise, possibly because of the no confidence vote.

In any event, Redmond looks like a promotion for Sheppard. Even though smaller in population than Richmond (71,929), Redmond appears to be a relatively wealthy city, the home of Microsoft and Nintendo. The Redmond Fire Department annual budget is nearly $43 million compared to $30 million in Richmond.